An AC surface discharge type panel that is typical as a plasma display panel (hereinafter abbreviated as a “panel”) includes a number of discharge cells between a front plate and a back plate arranged to face each other.
The front plate is constituted by a front glass substrate, a plurality of display electrodes, a dielectric layer and a protective layer. Each display electrode is composed of a pair of scan electrode and sustain electrode. The plurality of display electrodes are formed in parallel with one another on the front glass substrate, and the dielectric layer and the protective layer are formed to cover the display electrodes.
The back plate is constituted by a back glass substrate, a plurality of data electrodes, a dielectric layer, a plurality of barrier ribs and phosphor layers. The plurality of data electrodes are formed in parallel with one another on the back glass substrate, and the dielectric layer is formed to cover the data electrodes. The plurality of barrier ribs are formed in parallel with the data electrodes, respectively, on the dielectric layer, and the phosphor layers of R (red), G (green) and B (blue) are formed on a surface of the dielectric layer and side surfaces of the barrier ribs.
The front plate and the back plate are arranged to face each other such that the display electrodes intersect with the data electrodes in three dimensions, and then sealed. An inside discharge space is filled with a discharge gas. The discharge cells are formed at respective portions at which the display electrodes and the data electrodes face one another.
In the panel having such a configuration, a gas discharge generates ultraviolet rays, which cause phosphors of R, G and B to be excited to emit light in each of the discharge cells. Accordingly, color display is performed.
A sub-field method is employed as a driving method of the panel (see Patent Document 1, for example). In the sub-field method, one field period is divided into a plurality of sub-fields, and the discharge cells are caused to emit light or not in the respective sub-fields, so that gray scale display is performed. Each sub-field has a setup period, a write period and a sustain period.
In the setup period, a setup pulse is applied to each scan electrode, and a setup discharge is performed in each discharge cell. This causes wall charges required for a subsequent write operation to be formed in each discharge cell.
In the write period, scan pulses are sequentially applied to the scan electrodes while write pulses corresponding to image signals to be displayed are applied to the data electrodes. This selectively generates write discharges between the scan electrodes and the data electrodes, causing the wall charges to be selectively formed.
In the subsequent sustain period, sustain pulses are applied between the scan electrodes and the sustain electrodes a predetermined number of times corresponding to luminances to be displayed. Accordingly, discharges are selectively induced in the discharge cells in which the wall charges have been formed by the write discharges, causing the discharge cells to emit light. The plurality of scan electrodes are driven by a scan electrode driving circuit, the plurality of sustain electrodes are driven by a sustain electrode driving circuit, and the plurality of data electrodes are driven by a data electrode driving circuit.
[Patent Document 1] JP 2006-18298 A